Time After Time
by msllamalover
Summary: Angelina, Fred, George, Alicia, Lee and Katie: six lives entwined, torn apart and sewn messily back together. There is no end and there is no new beginning, only the harsh continuity.


_Disclaimer: Not mine, of course!  
__A/N: This piece is a little strange, I think, but one that I'm proud of. These aren't characters I write often, so this is new for me. I'd love to know what you think, after all, reviews are the only payment we get!  
__Thank you: To Kristen, who beta'd this for me. You're great!_

'Wow, Johnson, where'd you pick that one up?' Fred grins. It is a very crooked smile, charming, in its way. He isn't the most handsome of boys - even George has something more about him than Fred, but he is handsome because he is bright and funny and different. She sees that when she looks at him now.

'I think that perhaps Alicia hit me during the night,' she smirks. They are talking about the bruise that is currently surrounding her eye. They both laugh because that is the last thing kind-hearted Alicia would do. 'It's my prized wound from that bastard Slytherin beater during the last match.'

'Well, we won it so I guess it was worth it?' He suggests. She shrugs her shoulders in reply, showing that she agrees with him. 'Pretty bad though. Want me to hex him for you?'

She lets out a quick, loud laugh. Her laugh usually makes people in the common room turn round to see what she is laughing about, but she doesn't care. 'I think you'll find, Fredrick, that I've already taken care of him.'

Fred can't help but look a little scared. 'It's time like this I'm glad you like me.'

'So you should be, young Weasley! Fear this wand!'

'Young Weasley, is it now?' He laughs (she always loved his laugh, it came from the heart) and grabs her round the middle. His long fingers move quickly, tickling every part of her he can reach. She shrieks and laughs and he knows that she will _kill_ him later. It's worth it because he loves the look on her face when she's happy.

And there is no doubt in his mind that she's happy when she's with him, just like he's happy (happiest) when he's with her.

'You're-'_tickle_' - a month -'_smirk_'-younger than …'

He doesn't finish his sentence because his lips are on hers and he isn't tickling her anymore. She's never still and this doesn't change because she's being kissed. Her fingers are tangling themselves in his hair and she is pulling him down over her onto the sofa.

'Sweet Merlin, did we miss the party?!' Lee Jordan's voice breaks their concentration and Fred pulls her up with him, standing and helping her up too. George is grinning, clearly concocting something, Lee looks bemused but grins, and Alicia just laughs. She's seen this coming for a long time.

'No party that you can join in with, Lee. Kindly leave us alone and go back to whatever you were doing before.' Angelina retorts and Lee holds his hands up in surrender.

Their friends quickly leave, all laughing now. They aren't going to hear the end of this anytime soon, and honestly, neither Fred nor Angelina really cares.

* * *

'You didn't have to come.' George calls out into the main shop, where Alicia is sitting quietly behind the till just in case of customers, though they aren't expecting any.

Alicia's face drops. She wants to come and spend time with him, but George seems not to notice. She is just there when Angelina has stolen Fred away or when Lee is unavailable or when Katie is busy with Quidditch. She is the loveliest of people; it is not something decided but silently known by all of them.

'Not that I don't want you here, Leesh,' he sticks his head out of the storeroom, somehow sensing how she feels. 'I just hate to think that I'm getting in the way of your plans.'

'You aren't, I don't have any plans.' They exchange a smile and he returns to his creations. She sighs quietly. All of her plans seem to revolve around waiting for George to notice her. Her shyness isn't crippling nor is it as bad as it was when she was younger, but it has for years stopped her from telling him how she feels.

Once she thought that he might feel the same way, but he hadn't done anything and things had been so horribly _normal_ for at least three years. It was just her sad luck, she thought, that she had fallen for the shyer Weasley twin.

Alicia stands up and wrings her hands in front of her. She takes a deep breath and moves to lean against the door frame. She can see where George is working, fine fingers grasping a pencil, drawing up plans for new products. He looks up and grins, gesturing for her to come and sit by him.

'I'm glad you're here, Leesh,' he murmurs under his breath.

'I'm glad I'm here too.' She replies with a wide smile. He can't help but think that she's beautiful when she smiles. She inspires the feelings that Ginny used to read about and his dad used to warn him about. They are leading into a war now but he cannot feel any other way but this.

She takes his hand, his fingers close warmly about her cold hand. Katie would be laughing and Angelina would be getting annoyed, she can see their faces in her mind. She is so excessively close to something. A final push, one more movement is all it would take.

It is George in the end who kisses her. A kiss on the cheek, a promise. One day there will be more.

* * *

Katie watches as Lee snakes his arm around the slim waist of his current girlfriend. It isn't that he has a lot of girlfriends, but they never seem to last very long. This particular woman is especially elegant with her long, flowing limbs and blonde hair. Subconsciously, Katie runs her fingers through her short, messy hair and wonders if she should grow it.

It isn't like her to be so uncertain. Angelina is strong and brave and keeps everything hidden. Alicia is shy and quiet but isn't afraid to open her heart to her friends. Katie is the one whose emotions bubble out of her, exploding in fits of laughter and jokes and tears of happiness. She isn't used to hiding herself.

Now she's just being melodramatic, she knows. She isn't hiding herself, just her feelings.

'Katie, my dear girl!' Lee swans over with all the drama of their Hogwarts days still flourishing in his eyes, exaggerated thanks to his role on Potterwatch, where he is River now. Supporters of Potter (and there are many, and they have to trust those around them not to tell) secretly express their thanks.

She rolls her eyes. 'You dramatic old fool, what on earth are you doing leaving your no-doubt air headed date?'

'Oh my, that was bitter!' He throws an arm around her neck. 'I didn't expect such things from you! Though I'll let you in on a little secret, if you should so like?'

'Go on then, let's hear it. Although if it's as feeble as that secret you told me about Oliver then I'm not going to listen to you again.'

'Of course it isn't! And Oliver being gay was a very big secret!'

'Yes, perhaps it would have been if it was true, but he's happily married now, isn't he?'

'I'm still surprised, admittedly. But this secret is a good one. Naomi is dull, keeps talking about the Ministry and Gringotts. Not heard an interesting thing leave her lips in the past hour.' Lee sighs and Katie laughs.

'Maybe we should introduce her to Percy?' Lee suggests and they both laugh again. Percy Weasley is well known amongst the six of them for loving the Ministry.

'What an insipid match that would be. Percy needs someone extravagant.' She looks thoughtful as she wonders who might be a good woman for the twin's older brother.

His face screws up. 'Like you?'

'Oh Merlin!' Katie exclaims, punching him in the arm. 'Cut me some slack! I'd have thought you'd known me slightly better than that. I'm almost insulted! Besides, I couldn't have banter with Percy Weasley could I? He'd bore me to tears.'

She almost, almost bites her lip. But she is safe; Lee hasn't picked up on her subtle hint. He never was one for picking up hints or noticing hidden feelings.

Lee apologises and swans back over to the Insipid Naomi. Katie had recovered after he had pursued Angelina instead of her when they were younger, coming to think of him as a very good friend instead of anything more. Still, something she can't explain and doesn't want to acknowledge stirs somewhere inside her.

* * *

The war has supposedly been over for a year. The enemy is defeated and they are at peace.

But not one of them feels it. There is no peace. There is silence, frequent silence. There is calmness, but it isn't peaceful, it's riddled with guilt and sadness and unnecessary loneliness. They are heroes. Unspoken and unknown, but heroes. Even if none of them speak it.

George is withdrawn, a mere shadow of himself. Alicia sits beside him, her hand encased in his cold, stone grip. Angelina doesn't fly anymore, inside she knows she'll never touch a broom again. That was something she did with him. Lee's voice is flat and quiet. Katie's eyes, once round and bright, have lost the sparkle and the lightness. They see each other a lot, but it has changed and it's never going to be the same. Maybe that is the worst bit.

Now, they look, but none really see unless it is what they want to see. None of them see Alicia getting weaker and weaker with every passing day.

'I'm dying.' Her voice is so quiet as she whispers it that it sounds like she has not spoken at all. In the deathly silence, they don't miss it.

'Don't, Alicia.' Katie mutters. 'Don't be ridiculous.'

'I'm dying.' She repeats, speaking a little louder. She is still so quiet.

All of their eyes are on her now. There is a sad acceptance written onto her pale face. None of them wants to accept that they have to let go of another friend.

'W-why?' George lets go of her hand and she feels like she is letting him down.

She takes in a deep breath and shuts her eyes to hide that tears are now grouping here, threatening to spill over. She doesn't want to cry and she doesn't want to see their faces. She keeps her eyes shut as she tells them.

'A curse in the Final Battle…a dark, dark curse. The Healers said they'd never seen anything quite like it. There's nothing anyone can do, they've tried.' Alicia sighs, opening her eyes, but not looking at any of them just yet. 'I look fine on the outside, and mentally I'm fine. But it's eating me from the inside out and eventually my body just won't be able to handle it anymore. I'll die.'

There is a silence more stifling than any of the past silences. There is nothing they can do and nothing they can say because suddenly there is no doubt that she is telling the truth. She looks at them now. They look shell-shocked and devastated. Angelina and Katie and Lee are crying. George is looking at her but there is nothing behind his eyes at that moment and there are no tears. She wonders if he has any emotion left for her.

She doesn't cry for herself because she has already done her grieving.

'How long have you known?' Angelina, her Angie, says through her tears.

'I found out a few weeks after the battle. I'm sorry I didn't tell you.'

Katie throws herself onto her from one side and she is hit with the full force of Angelina on the other. 'How have you lived with this for so long, you brave, stupid woman? Why didn't you tell us?'

'Because we lost Fred. I - I wanted to tell you, but we needed to be sad for him. It would have been selfish. I'm not dead yet.' She grasps her sisters closer to her and they sit tangled together, a mixture of friendship and love and great sadness.

Katie untangles herself and moves to sit with Lee, her face buried in his shoulder. He is crying, too. Angelina moves to sit by herself in a corner. Alicia hates that she is the reason for their sadness, she doesn't want to see the people she loves the most so grieved again.

She slides closer to George and entwines their hands again. He doesn't cry and neither does she. They just sit, like stone.

George doesn't cry until Alicia's funeral. The tears just won't stop falling as they bury a friend they never expected they would have to.

* * *

'Three years.' Katie breaks the silence. 'It's been three years.'

'I know.'

'Do you think it'll ever not hurt?'

'No.'

Katie nods her head in agreement. Most of the time now she can look back and smile at the days that didn't go as planned and laugh at the better times. She doesn't ever cry with laughter now, like she always used to, but there was a time when she wondered how she would ever laugh again.

Lee works on the wireless. He seems like the River of days gone by, but there is an edge to his voice that none of them miss. When he is alone he is broken, as they all are. When they are together, the four of them now (not six, they always think six first), Lee is the one trying to make everyone else feel better. Alicia used to do that, and he isn't nearly as good because his heart isn't truly in it.

'It hurts today, so much.' Katie whispers. Sometimes it seems like all of their conversations are conducted in whispers. The loud voices still hurt and they remind her of Fred, who was the loudest person she knew.

Lee wraps his arm around her. They have spent more and more time together and their gestures are so much easier now. Katie remembers a time when she wouldn't have wanted anything more than to have Lee be affectionate like this with her.

'I know, Bella.' He has taken to calling her Bella, a spin on her surname. She suspects that he only does it because it makes her smile. 'It's going to get easier though.'

'When?'

She feels like a child again. She just wants the hope and lightness back again. She can't seem to find it on her own.

'I don't know, soon, I think.' Lee smiles though watery eyes. 'I thought of Fred the other day in the joke shop. It was the day we were all there not long after they had opened. I can't remember what we were doing - something stupid though. The six of us. And it made me laugh. Whenever I think now, I smile. That's progress, isn't it?'

She nods, because it is, and because she feels exactly the same way.

'And you know what else?'

'What?'

'It hurts less when I'm with you.'

She nods again. It is painful, living in a world without some of the most important people to them, but they are still reconstructing their lives and it seems to simply make sense to reconstruct them together.

* * *

The first time George and Angelina have sex (not make love, they don't make love until years later) it is desperate and raw. They both need this closeness, this affection.

They have both lost the love they first had, the first love they ever wanted. 'I'm sorry, Angie.'

'Why would you be sorry?' She winds her body around his, drawing them closer. George wraps his arms around her.

'Because you should be with … well you shouldn't be with me.'

'You think I should be with Fred?' Angelina asks, feeling sad inside though she won't show it now. 'Should you not be with Alicia?'

She feels him shrug a little. They are quiet again.

'Not quite what either of us had in mind was it?'

The second time they have sex, it is hard and needy again.

The third it is because they want it. They miss the feeling of each other. Not just the desire of the person they lost, not just because they needed the touch of skin against skin. They needed each other.

When Angelina falls pregnant, they fall into turmoil again. It isn't that they don't want this child. The second Angelina finds out, a new fire is lit inside her and she feels hope that she hasn't felt in nearly nine years. She feels alive again with the new life growing inside her.

George finds it harder to see the light, but he does. The fire is not relit as strongly as in Angelina, but he smiles again, and even if the brightness and the humour is gone from his eyes, he is happier than he thought he could be.

There is never any discussion about names; it is something they both know.

George has lost a brother, Angelina has lost a sister and they have both lost love. For a long while they had lost themselves, but slowly, slowly, they are finding themselves again. Together, they find something they never expected, in situations they didn't want, but it is the best they can hope for.

Amazingly, they find that it is enough.

* * *

Within the six lives entwined, there is no end and there is no new beginning. Only sad, painful and wonderful continuity, and the people learning to live with it. It is not what they expected when they started their friendship aged eleven and it is not the outcome they anticipated, even in their darkest nightmares. But it is what they have. And they are finally healing.


End file.
